Richard Pollak: Media Critic, Magazine Founder, and Biographer

Richard Pollak, who co-founded (MORE) in 1971 with J. Anthony Lukas and William Woodward III, helped create a magazine that probed journalism itself. Although he was trained as a reporter and editor, he applied investigative rigor to the press and pushed for corrections and transparency, practices that would increasingly define media accountability. The magazine operated through much of the 1970s, but financial strains and ownership changes changed its shape and ultimately ended its run by the late 1970s.

More's critiques were often pointed; it published investigations, reprinted spiked stories, and demanded clearer practices from major outlets, actions that sometimes provoked editors and publishers. Consequently, the magazine’s influence outlasted its pages: journalists and scholars have cited its challenges to newsroom assumptions when they study media ethics and institutional opacity. Nevertheless, the publication’s ambitions were constrained by the economics of small-circulation titles and by shifting media tastes.

Pollak later turned to book writing and to roles at The Nation; his 1997 biography, The Creation of Dr. B, marshaled interviews and archival material to challenge Bruno Bettelheim’s credentials and methods. While some critics faulted Pollak’s tone, many reviewers agreed that his documentation demanded closer scrutiny of Bettelheim’s claims, including charges of plagiarism and abusive treatment at the Orthogenic School. Pollak died on December 27, 2025, in Stockholm at age 91; his passing closed a long career that intersected debates about press power and professional responsibility.

Moreover, Pollak's investigations and books remain reference points for journalism students and for scholars who study ethics and institutional power. Consequently, his career shows how reporting can change public understanding, even when the work is contentious.